This restaurant uses dolls to ensure customers adhere to social distancing

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This restaurant uses dolls to ensure customers adhere to social distancing

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Updated: 9:18 AM CDT May 15, 2020

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CAROL: THEY TAKE UP VALUABLE TABLES, BUT DON’T BUY ANY FOOD. THEY ARE QUIET MOM BUT THEY ARE THE TALK OF THE RESTAURANT. VALUABLE ADDITIONS IN THESE DAYS OF SOCIAL DISTANCING. BUT WHO ARE THEY? WYFF NEWS 4’S JOHN LYON HAS THE ANSWER. >> HEY CHARLEY AND CINDY, HOW ARE YOU ALL? JOHN: A REAL LIFE OWNER AT THE OPEN HEARTH GREETS DINERS AND THEN SEATS THEM NEXT TO A COUPLE OF BLOW UP DOLLS. >> WHEN THESE PEOPLE CAME IN LAST NIGHT, THEY WERE JUST ALL LAUGHS AND LAUGHING VERY HARD AND TELLING US HOW CLEVER THIS WAS AND WHAT A GREAT IDEA. JOHN: RATHER THAN BLOCKING OFF TABLES TO ACHIEVE SOCIAL DISTANCING, PAULA STARR DECIDED TO HAVE SOME FUN. >> THEY ARE VERY HUMOROUS. THEY HAVE NICE FACES. THE LADIES HAVE PRETTY MAKE UP ON. THE WIGS WERE GIFTS FROM DIFFERENT PEOPLE. JOHN: THE 10 BLOW UP DOLLS COST ABOUT $140, BUT PAULA SAYS YOU HAVE TO SPEND MONEY TO MAKE MONEY. >> SHE’S READY FOR SUMMER. JOHN: THE FIVE COUPLES ARE DRESSED IN HAND ME DOWN CLOTHES, WEIGHTED DOWN SO THEY DON’T SHIFT, AND ONLY ONE LOST ANY AIR OVERNIGHT. >> I MIGHT EVEN KISS ONE OF THOSE DOLLS BEFORE THE NIGHT’S OVER. [LAUGHTER] JOHN: I THINK YOU’LL HAVE TO BUY HER A DRINK FIRST. >> IF SHE CAN DRINK IT, ILL BUY IT. JOHN: DINERS ARE HAVING FUN WITH THE DOLLS. SOME GETTING PICTURES WITH THEM AND POSTING THEM ON SOCIAL MEDIA. SO FAR THE QUIET COUPLES HAVEN’T GOTTEN NAMES. >> IT’S A CONCEPT THAT IS NOT FRIGHTENING TO PEOPLE AND IT GIVE THEM SOMETHING LIGHT TO THINK ABOUT INSTEAD OF VIRUS AND X’S EVERYWHERE. JOHN: AND THE DOLLS HAVE PUMPED UP CUSTOMERS, EMPLOYEES AND MUCH NEEDED BUSINESS, ALL WHILE KEEPING PEOPLE SAFELY SP

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This restaurant uses dolls to ensure customers adhere to social distancing

The Open Hearth restaurant hasn't served a dine-in customer since March 17, but on Tuesday night, owners were hoping for a full house — well, sort of.Paula Starr Melehes and her husband, Jimmy, have carefully followed all of South Carolina's guidelines for reopening the popular restaurant, including making sure customers are seated at least 6 feet apart.That makes for a lot of empty tables. "Instead of using scary, yellow tape or roping off the empty tables, I thought, 'We're going to make this restaurant look full,'" Melehes said.She ordered blow-up dolls from Amazon — "the G-rated kind," she said — dressed them up and has them seated at all of the tables that won't be occupied by real customers."My grandson told me they look kind of creepy," Melehes said. "But, I think, when people walk in, they're going to laugh."Melehes doesn't want people to think they're taking the guidelines lightly. She said they have followed them to a tee, spacing out customer seating, providing an automatic hand sanitizer dispenser and using disposable menus. The restaurant will also require its 13 employees to wear masks, and the temperatures of all employees and customers who walk through the door will be taken.Melehes said the entire restaurant was professionally sanitized Monday: "walls, vents — the works.""We can't afford a shutdown," Melehes said.The family-run restaurant has been in business for 61 years, since Melehes said her father-in-law first opened it."We're doing everything we can to make sure we do this right," Melehes said. "We just didn't want the virus to be what shuts us down."

TAYLORS, S.C. —

The Open Hearth restaurant hasn't served a dine-in customer since March 17, but on Tuesday night, owners were hoping for a full house — well, sort of.

Paula Starr Melehes and her husband, Jimmy, have carefully followed all of South Carolina's guidelines for reopening the popular restaurant, including making sure customers are seated at least 6 feet apart.

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That makes for a lot of empty tables.

"Instead of using scary, yellow tape or roping off the empty tables, I thought, 'We're going to make this restaurant look full,'" Melehes said.

Paula Starr Melehes

She ordered blow-up dolls from Amazon — "the G-rated kind," she said — dressed them up and has them seated at all of the tables that won't be occupied by real customers.